Cellular communication systems continue to grow in popularity and have become an integral part of both personal and business communications. Cellular telephones allow users to place and receive phone calls most anywhere they travel. Moreover, as cellular telephone technology is increased, so too has the functionality of cellular devices. For example, many cellular devices now incorporate Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) features such as calendars, address books, task lists, calculators, memo and writing programs, etc. These multi-function devices usually allow users to wirelessly send and receive electronic mail (email) messages and access the internet via a cellular network and/or a wireless local area network (WLAN), for example.
As the functionality of cellular communications devices increases, the demand increases for smaller devices that are easier and more convenient for users to carry. As any circuit boards and electronic components thereon are reduced in size and placed closer together, including antenna and microphone components, various electronic components pick-up conductive energy and create interference within the system. For example, an internal audio transducer, for example, a receiver speaker, such as a speaker surface mounted on the circuit board, could pick-up conducted energy directly from a power amplifier, from the radiated energy emitted by an antenna or from other circuitry and, as a result, create an audible buzz within the speaker. This unwanted reception of conducted/near field radiated energy from any power amplifiers, antennae and RF or other circuitry is particularly problematic in a packet burst transmission as part of a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) system, including the 450 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency bands. Other interfering signals that could create an audible buzz in the speaker could be generated when the liquid crystal display (LCD) in some mobile wireless communications devices radiates radio frequency (RF) interfering energy. Interfering energy could also be generated by the microprocessor or another similar central processing unit (CPU).
Other problems occur when the antenna impedance match is detuned and antenna gain is degraded by the coupling of adjacent electronic components, for example, the receiver speaker relative to the antenna. It would be desirable to improve antenna performance of the mobile wireless communications device by blocking RF current from being coupled to the ground plane of the printed circuit board through adjacent electronic components. For example, the receiver is typically located close to the antenna and couples RF energy from the antenna to the ground plane, detuning an antenna impedance match and degrading antenna gain.